Drawings and Photographs

The Sketchbook Challenge theme for August is Everyday Objects. Since I didn't manage to do any drawings last month based on their theme (Elements) I decided I had better do something this month so selecting an object that is part of my everyday drawing life I drew. Not sure how much time I spent on this, not all that much, maybe an hour or so. For those who don't recognize it, it is a 3mm mechanical pencil lead sharpener. When I posted this to the flickr Sketchbook Challenge group someone commented that they thought it was a sippy cup at first glance. I suppose it does look a bit like a sippy cup, esp as from the drawing you can't tell how large it is. In real live it is much too small to hold something to drink.

The photo below is of a new stipple drawing in progress:

This spring I made a photograph of a clump of ferns popping up out of the ground and starting to unfurl their fronds. They were still pretty much curled when I made the photo, as you can see in the lightly penciled drawing above. Anyway I really liked this photo and decided that it would be a good subject for a pen and ink drawing. The paper is really gray, one of the tinted Stonehenge papers to be exact. Stonehenge is a fairly sturdy paper popular with Color Pencil artists. I purchased several sheets a couple of weeks ago and am still experimenting with it to discover what I like and don't like about it.

You will note that I am not that far along with the stippling, the reason is that I have been out and about making photographs. The butterflies are finally semi cooperative and I have posted several of my better ones to my Flickr account (link to my account is on the right). The past couple of days have been beautiful weather wise and I really had to take advantage of it.

Yesterday I drove down to Cape Cod and finally spent some time in Sandwich. Photo below is the old Grist Mill near Sandwich center.

I also finally managed a visit to the Thornton Burgess Museum and garden which is located on the Mill Pond, the photo of the Dill blossoms below was made in their garden. The museum is housed in a very old home with examples of his illustrations for his many books and stories hung on the walls. The wooden floor in the house is amazing as the boards used were about a foot wide, not something you would ever find in a more modern house. The museum is well worth the time to visit.

Finishing my look around Sandwich I drove further down the Cape to again visit Long Pasture, the MA Audubon sanctuary. I strolled the paths through the fields checking out the small wild flower garden areas to see what I could find to photograph. The photograph below of two butterflies on the same plant was my reward.

I have no clue what these guys are, I spent a fair amount of time last night researching various images, but still haven't managed to ID them. I also saw a Tiger Swallowtail, several monarchs, a couple of yellow butterflies, and a small brown butterfly, but wasn't able to make any good photos, frustrating. Photographing butterflies takes patience and luck as they often don't want to cooperate. Still I really enjoyed my day out and about even if it did leave me exhausted.

That is it for today. The weather is supposed to change this weekend with rain moving in sometime tomorrow.  Good for the lakes and ponds which are a bit low, still for August everything is still fairly green, so there is no drought here in MA. Per usual comments are welcome, and if anyone can ID my butterflies please let me know what they are.